WASHINGTON — Skeptics dominated a conference on the impact of a proposed cap on debit interchange that was held on the same day Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke informed Congress that the Fed will miss an April 21 deadline to announce the regulation's final version.

WASHINGTON — The staff of the Federal Reserve failed when they did not thoroughly analyze the impact of a proposed regulation on the debit interchange cap on consumers and the economy at large, according to a leading economist.

Gene Sperling, who was the Treasury Department's point person during negations on the proposal for raising the cap on member business loans, was named by President Obama today to be director of the National Economic Council (NEC).